21 Oct 2017

Undoubtedly, a processor is the heart of a smartphone. The better the processor specs, the more benefits the phone gets to reap. The Snapdragon 835 and the MediaTek Helio X30 are two of the flagship processors in the mobile industry.

But which one will prove to outdo the other in performance if you pit them against one another? Let's find out.

Performance: Battle of Cores

When it comes to the performance of the Snapdragon 835, it packs Qualcomm's first fully-custom 64-bit CPU core – Kryo. It packs 8 Kyro 280 CPUs and divides them over performance and efficiency.

Thus, we have 4 Kryo 280 clocking at 2.45GHz and another quartet of Kryo 280 clocking at 1.90GHz.

Source: Qualcomm

As opposed to the 8 cores of the Snapdragon 835, the MediaTek Helio X30 bundles 2 Cortex-A73 cores clocking at 2.8GHz, 4 Cortex-A53 cores clocking at 2.2GHz, and 4 Cortex-A35 cores that clock at 2.0GHz.

These cores are arranged in a Max.Mid.Min tri-cluster configuration.

These cores are arranged in a Max.Mid.Min tri-cluster configuration. While the A73 takes the most heat, the A35 handles low-performance and housekeeping tasks, leaving the middle road for the quartet of the A53 cores.

Middle of the road chores can be anything like browsing the social media feed, random browsing on the Internet, or any other daily activities.

Going into the finer details, the A53 cores are a lot more battery efficient and smaller in size compared to the A73 cores.

Though the X30 has a quartet of A35 cores for the low-end tasks, that doesn’t put the octa-core Snapdragon 835 at any disadvantage thanks to proper power optimization.

If we talk numbers, the A35 consumes 32% less power than the A53 while scaling the performance up by delivering 80%-100%.

Advantage of the 10-nm Fabrication Process

Both the Snapdragon 835 and the MediaTek HelioX30 feature the 10-nm architecture, which provides increased performance at a fraction of the power consumption compared to older chipsets like the Helio X20 or Snapdragon 821 while keeping the heat under control.

Source: MediaTek

The Helio X30 is the first MediaTek to boast of a 10nm design process

In fact, the MediaTek X30 is the first chipset from MediaTek that boasts of a 10-nm design. It offers up to 35% increase in performance and 50% boost in power when compared to the X20 processor.

As you might already know, a small die size means that more dies can fit into a chip, which not only reduces the fabrication cost but also increases manufacturing efficiency.

The Snapdragon 835 has a die size of 72.3 square millimeter. Compared to its predecessors, the 835 reports a die shrink of 36%.

GPU: Adreno vs PowerVR

The Snapdragon 835 also comes with an improved GPU integration -- Adreno 540 GPU. Compared to the older version, it gives 25% accelerated graphics rendering and 60 times more display color.

As opposed to the older Helio X20 with ARM Mali-T880MP4 GPU, MediaTek has switched over to PowerVR 7XT-MT4 GPU in the X30 processor.

Though it scales considerably when it comes to gaming, the Adreno 540 has an upper hand over its counterpart since it supports VR gaming and supports 2K and 4K VR experience seamlessly.

How does the Camera Support Measure Up

When it comes to the camera, both the chipsets support 32-megapixel on a single camera or 16+16-megapixel on a dual-camera setup.

Source: MediaTek

Besides, the Helio X30 also includes a Vision Processing Unit (VPU) coupled with MediaTek’s Imagiq 2.0 ISP. This integration provides a dedicated platform for a horde of camera features.

Other aspects of the Helio X30 include two 14-bit ISPs to support the dual 16-megapixel camera setup with real-time depth of field, fastest auto exposure, 4K HDR Video, and etc.

Which is Better?

In conclusion, it can be safely argued that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 has better stacks in place to come out as the winner. While the MediaTek Helio X30 couldn't outdo its counterpart, it does cut a few corners in its bid to become an affordable flagship chipset.

If you really want to pit it against a Qualcomm processor, I would say the Snapdragon 821 chipset would be a more apt rival for the X30 processor than the current 835 one.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018
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Written By

Namrata loves writing about products and gadgets. She has been working for Guiding Tech since 2017 and has around three years of experience writing features, how-tos, buying guides, and explainers. Previously she worked as an IT Analyst at TCS, but she found her calling elsewhere.